City fail with David Syers appeal.

As shocks go, that’s up there with dog chases cat and it always rains on Bank Holidays.

It was a full-blooded and fair tackle on Shrewsbury’s Nicky Wroe. Syers won the ball clearly.

On hearing the outcome of the fruitless appeal, the Bantams midfielder tweeted: “Miss three matches because the ref Mr Moraheb decided I successfully tackled the player but I did it too hard!”

Deep down, we all knew that there would be only one outcome when City argued their case with the powers-that-be.

Did anyone really think the panel would deny Dean Moraheb his first red card as a referee?

His use of the word “aggressive” in the report effectively killed Syers.

It was a cover-all description that could mean anything.

Yes, your honours, he might have won the tackle. But he did it in a particularly scary way… City were right to fight. Otherwise you might as well stop any contact completely and not bother with defending.

Perhaps it’s time to go the whole hog.

Put players in silk slippers and tu-tus and take it in turns to kick a ball made out of foam.

In fact, let’s scrap goals all together and leave the winning result down to the judges.

Apparently Len Goodman used to be a decent footballer in his time and I could see Craig Revel Horwood giving Sir Alex a run for his money.

And what about a name for this new super soft sport? Strictly ridiculous sounds about right.